The World of the Siege examines relations between the conduct and representations of early modern sieges. The volume offers case studies from various regions in Europe (England, France, the Low Countries, Germany, the Balkans) and throughout the world (the Chinese, Ottoman and Mughal Empires), from the 15th century into the 18th. The international contributors analyse how siege narratives were created and disseminated, and how early modern actors as well as later historians made sense of these violent events in both textual and visual artefacts. . The volume’s chronological and geographical breadth provides insight into similarities and differences of siege warfare and military culture across several cultures, countries and centuries, as well as its impact on both combatants and observers.

And, as bonus, if you act now, you can see what a semi-automated book index (with Python) looks like. What a bargain!

Ah, the price. There might well have been other publishers out there, but I fear that ship has sailed, unless one publishes in American history or can find a large subvention. FWIW, last year’s edited collection “The War of the Spanish Succession: New Perspectives” by Oxford is listed at $100; “Civilians and Warfare in World History” (Routledge, 2017) is listed at $150, though on Amazon for $75. I think academics & libraries buying fewer books + easier duplication + more specialization = higher costs. Which came first, I’ll leave to the industry experts.

Good or bad, Brill seems to have largely cornered the market for early modern Europe. There are various books published with other presses, sometimes it seems almost at random, but there seem to be few publishers that consistently publish in the subject – Palgrave is one of the rare ones, whose works tend to be slightly-less specialized. So if one is thinking in terms of exposure or ease of discovery with a global reach, Brill is probably the best choice for early modern Europeanists. But I’d love if there were multiple presses selling reasonably-priced paperbacks. Like NYU’s Warfare and Culture series was.